Biodiesel fuel has become an attractive alternative for the use of the standard petroleum-based diesel fuel that most of the world is accustomed to. The mass production of the fuel has been a topic throughout the scientific and political worlds for decades. The more environment – friendly alternative, compared to petrodiesel, has acquisition of feedstock issues, high costs for production, and competing uses for biodiesel feedstocks, which causes issue for a great adoption of biodiesel fuels.
Biodiesel fuel is also known as methyl ester, or ethyl ester, depending upon whether methanol or ethanol is used during the creation process. It is produced through a process known as transesterification, in which a type of vegetable oil or animal fat is reacted with methanol or ethanol in order to remove glycerin. The reaction cannot take place solely with oil or animal fat and an alcohol, without the presence of a catalyst. The most common catalysts used in transesterification are Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and Potassium Hydroxide (KOH).2
Transesterification dates back as early as 1853, when two scientists by the names of J.Patrick and E. Duffy conducted the reaction using a vegetable oil.7 The first conducted transesterification reaction took place almost a half century before the creation of the diesel engine by Rudolf Diesel. Diesel exhibited his engine in Paris, France during the highly acclaimed World Fair in 1900.5 This invention embodied the vision of a productive biofuel, due to the fact that the engine was run by peanut oil. During the 1920’s, after the passing of Rudolf Diesel, manufacturers of diesel engines almost completely ignored the idea of biofuel and heavily relied on fossil fuel. Petrodiesel was the primary source of fuel, because it was significantly cheaper to produce, but when environment concerns began to become more prevalent and production of biodiesel became cheaper, it reemerged on the map. Biodiesel fuel became considered during WWII and the 1970’s during oil crises, and there was a growing interest in diversifying oil consumption, but troubles with the diesel engine’s intake of biodiesel due to its viscosity lead to the disinterest in the fuel once again. More recently the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 brought the environmental effect of the continual use of fossil fuels into a larger light. Also the Energy Policy Act of 1992 helped to initiate the larger scale production of alternative biofuels, which are coincidentally less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels.4
In 2008 the International Grain Council reported that roughly 48% of the global biodiesel production consisted of rapeseed oil, which was 4.6 million metric tons. Soybean oil consisted of 22% of biediesel production with 2.1 million metric tons, palm oil was 11% with one million metric tons, and an assortment of the remaining vegetable oils and animal fats consisted of 19%, which accumulated to 1.9 million metric tons.3 Although the those production amounts seem to be high, the United States averages 3.7 billion gallons in various vegetable oil and animal fat supplies, and if we were to contribute all of this amount to biodiesel feedstock then it would only equal 13% of the 28 billion gallons of diesel fuel used in the U.S. annually.4 This report addresses only a couple leading feedstocks for today’s biodiesel fuel. The most well known feedstock in the United States are, waste vegetable oil, virgin oil (under this title consist s soybean and rapeseed oil, which accounts for roughly 90% of biodiesel feedstock in the nation), Algae is a rather new development, and various animal fats (e.g chicken fat, lard, tallow, etc…).
There are new developments arising more often, as each year goes by, regarding biodiesel fuels and its efficiency. Before addressing the new developments of biodiesel fuel, it is first essential to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of biodiesel fuel, to get a grasp of what it could be best used for in the future. To start with the advantages of biodiesel, it is valuable to mention that it has the ability to mix with petroleum-based diesel fuel at any proportions, which give it several technical advantages over sulfur diesel fuel. Some of these are that biodiesel is derived from a domestic and renewable feedstock, it has low toxicity, it is biodegradable, low exhaust emissions, and a flash point, the point at which a flame occurs at the lowest temperature in a controlled environment, deemed superior to sulfur diesel fuel, the absence of sulfur in B100 (biodiesel consisting of 100% biodiesel – no additives) extends the life of catalytic converters, etc….3 Along with the basic advantages listed above, biodiesel fuel has emission advantages compared to petrodiesel. Biodiesel fuel has a reduction in unburned carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides and nitrous oxides. The reduction in hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides are primarily beneficial to the Earth’s atmosphere, because of the fact that they are precursors to the formation of “smog”.1 One of the most obvious disadvantages of biodiesel fuel is the availability of feedstock to cause a significant difference in the necessary consumption of petrodiesel fuels. Some other issues include the energy necessary for the harvesting and processing of feedstock using transesterification, biodiesel cleans the dirt in the engine, but consequently transfers that same dirt into the fuel filter leading to clogging6, because of fuel oxidation and its rapid effect in biodiesel its storage life is inferior to petrodiesel, there is a low-temperature operability, a smaller energy content per volume versus petrodiesel.3
Biodiesel has become a realistic alternative for the increasingly fast depleting fossil fuel that we all rely on. The various vegetable oils and possible vegetable oil feedstock is presently under exploited. The characteristic of biodiesel to be miscible with petroleum-based diesel fuel at any proportion will play a large part in taking small steps to creating a more biodiesel influenced society. Although a complete switch to the more environmentally “friendly” biodiesel seems to be the sure answer, there are still various technological kinks to be worked out on the fuels behalf. A consumer issue regarding the capital means to stabilize the oxidation of biodiesel will definitely cause a step back from the alternative source. There must be a significant amount of caution and care taken by consumers before the transfer to fuels containing large percentages of biodiesel. There must be care when cleaning storage tanks and monitoring the tank’s storage through the environment and condition changes like temperature, moisture content, sunlight exposure, and the atmosphere that the fuel is kept in.4 Lastly the additives and genetically modified crops for biodiesel feedstock require vast amounts of experimenting, regulatory evaluations, and approval from organizations such as the EPA before being commercially distributed. However, the numerous environmental benefits and applications of biodiesel fuels will carry forward to assure that an abundant market remains for the very attractive alternative to conventional petroleum – based diesel fuel.
Procedure
My Procedure was aimed to create biodiesel fuel, using one of the most common and abundant feedstocks, vegetable oil. The purpose for the experiment is to remove the glycerin byproduct from the vegetable oil, and continue with mostly biodiesel fuel and the remaining catalyst, sodium hydroxide.
You want to first make sure that the environment around you is room temperature, or the reaction will not properly take place. First I got a decently large beaker (preferably 400+, so you have enough space for stirring, etc...). Next I took 40 ml. of methyl alcohol/methanol and poured it into the beaker. After pouring the methanol, I broke up .7 grams of Sodium hydroxide, because its reaction with methanol is particularly slow. Then I slowly placed the sodium hydroxide into the methanol, and stirred it until the sodium hydroxide fully disintegrated. The reaction between methanol and the dissolved sodium hydroxide yields sodium methoxide. Lastly I added approximately 200 ml. of vegetable oil to the sodium methoxide. You will then witness separation, which is the seperation of glycerin (bottom layer) and the biodiesel fuel (top layer). You must allow few hours, to insure the separation has fully occured. When you identify that the separation has taken place, pour the biodiesel into another beaker, and the glycerin should mostly stick to the bottom of the beaker.
Results
The experiment proved to be fairly successful, due to my ability to seperate the glycerin from the valuable biodiesel fuel. I actually allowed a few days for the separation process to occur, which may have attributed to the great amount of glycerin formation on the bottom of the beaker.
Conclusions
Biodiesel fuel has slowly emerged into the national (U.S) and global picture in terms of fuel sources. The importance of a such a fuel source, will prove highly essential in the future, and the ability to produce something to this magnitude instantly sparked my interest. Although the experiment proved to be fairly successful, I believe there were some slight issues that I would like to address. When I separated the biodiesel from the glycerin, and examined the beaker with the biodiesel I noticed that many minuscule particles of glycerin subsisted within the mixture. The difference between this experiment, and the transesterification done by scientists largely lies in the ability to filter and purify the biodiesel fuel, in order to remove any unwanted substances. Due to the viscosity of the liquid, it would be difficult to use basic filtration equipment to remove the tiny glycerin particles to produce a higher percentage of purity in the fuel. I would also like to address the time that I allowed for the separation process. I yielded a very desirable amount of glycerin, and I wonder if the extended time allowed for seperation caused for the results that I received. If I only allowed for the time allotted initially, would I have yielded the same amounts?
References
1.) National Biodiesel Board. "Biodiesel." Biodisel: The official site of the NAtional Biodiesel Board . the NAtional Biodiesel Board , 2010. Web. 2 May
2010. <http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/>.
2.) North Dakota State University, Vern Hofman. "Biodiesel Fuel." Ag.Ndsu.edu. NDSU,
Feb. 2003. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ageng/machine/
ae1240w.htm>.
3.) Moser, Bryan R. "Biodiesel production, properties, and feedstocks." Rev. of In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Plant, by Bryan R. Moser. Springerlink. Springer, 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 2 May 2010. <http:/
www.springerlink.com/content/t8jv6m7264183nu7/fulltext.pdf>.
4.) Duffield, James, et al. "U.S. Biodiesel Development: New Markets for
Conventional and Genetically Modified Agricultural Fats and Oils."
Economic Research Service. USDA, 1 Sept. 1998. Web. 2 May 2010.
<http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer770/aer770.pdf>.
5.) Khemani, Haresh. "History of Biodiesel Fuel." Bright Hub. Bright Hub Inc., 9
Sept. 2008. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/
mechanical/articles/6728.aspx>. 6.) Kmhyr. "Biodiesel Fuel." CPast//. CPAST, 1 Jan. 2003. Web. 3 May 2010.
<http://www.cpast.org/Articles/fetch.adp?topicnum=61>.
Table of Contents
Devon K. Henderson
Biodiesel fuel has become an attractive alternative for the use of the standard petroleum-based diesel fuel that most of the world is accustomed to. The mass production of the fuel has been a topic throughout the scientific and political worlds for decades. The more environment – friendly alternative, compared to petrodiesel, has acquisition of feedstock issues, high costs for production, and competing uses for biodiesel feedstocks, which causes issue for a great adoption of biodiesel fuels.
Biodiesel fuel is also known as methyl ester, or ethyl ester, depending upon whether methanol or ethanol is used during the creation process. It is produced through a process known as transesterification, in which a type of vegetable oil or animal fat is reacted with methanol or ethanol in order to remove glycerin. The reaction cannot take place solely with oil or animal fat and an alcohol, without the presence of a catalyst. The most common catalysts used in transesterification are Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and Potassium Hydroxide (KOH).2
Transesterification dates back as early as 1853, when two scientists by the names of J.Patrick and E. Duffy conducted the reaction using a vegetable oil.7 The first conducted transesterification reaction took place almost a half century before the creation of the diesel engine by Rudolf Diesel. Diesel exhibited his engine in Paris, France during the highly acclaimed World Fair in 1900.5 This invention embodied the vision of a productive biofuel, due to the fact that the engine was run by peanut oil. During the 1920’s, after the passing of Rudolf Diesel, manufacturers of diesel engines almost completely ignored the idea of biofuel and heavily relied on fossil fuel. Petrodiesel was the primary source of fuel, because it was significantly cheaper to produce, but when environment concerns began to become more prevalent and production of biodiesel became cheaper, it reemerged on the map. Biodiesel fuel became considered during WWII and the 1970’s during oil crises, and there was a growing interest in diversifying oil consumption, but troubles with the diesel engine’s intake of biodiesel due to its viscosity lead to the disinterest in the fuel once again. More recently the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 brought the environmental effect of the continual use of fossil fuels into a larger light. Also the Energy Policy Act of 1992 helped to initiate the larger scale production of alternative biofuels, which are coincidentally less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels.4
In 2008 the International Grain Council reported that roughly 48% of the global biodiesel production consisted of rapeseed oil, which was 4.6 million metric tons. Soybean oil consisted of 22% of biediesel production with 2.1 million metric tons, palm oil was 11% with one million metric tons, and an assortment of the remaining vegetable oils and animal fats consisted of 19%, which accumulated to 1.9 million metric tons.3 Although the those production amounts seem to be high, the United States averages 3.7 billion gallons in various vegetable oil and animal fat supplies, and if we were to contribute all of this amount to biodiesel feedstock then it would only equal 13% of the 28 billion gallons of diesel fuel used in the U.S. annually.4 This report addresses only a couple leading feedstocks for today’s biodiesel fuel. The most well known feedstock in the United States are, waste vegetable oil, virgin oil (under this title consist s soybean and rapeseed oil, which accounts for roughly 90% of biodiesel feedstock in the nation), Algae is a rather new development, and various animal fats (e.g chicken fat, lard, tallow, etc…).
There are new developments arising more often, as each year goes by, regarding biodiesel fuels and its efficiency. Before addressing the new developments of biodiesel fuel, it is first essential to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of biodiesel fuel, to get a grasp of what it could be best used for in the future. To start with the advantages of biodiesel, it is valuable to mention that it has the ability to mix with petroleum-based diesel fuel at any proportions, which give it several technical advantages over sulfur diesel fuel. Some of these are that biodiesel is derived from a domestic and renewable feedstock, it has low toxicity, it is biodegradable, low exhaust emissions, and a flash point, the point at which a flame occurs at the lowest temperature in a controlled environment, deemed superior to sulfur diesel fuel, the absence of sulfur in B100 (biodiesel consisting of 100% biodiesel – no additives) extends the life of catalytic converters, etc….3 Along with the basic advantages listed above, biodiesel fuel has emission advantages compared to petrodiesel. Biodiesel fuel has a reduction in unburned carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides and nitrous oxides. The reduction in hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides are primarily beneficial to the Earth’s atmosphere, because of the fact that they are precursors to the formation of “smog”.1 One of the most obvious disadvantages of biodiesel fuel is the availability of feedstock to cause a significant difference in the necessary consumption of petrodiesel fuels. Some other issues include the energy necessary for the harvesting and processing of feedstock using transesterification, biodiesel cleans the dirt in the engine, but consequently transfers that same dirt into the fuel filter leading to clogging6, because of fuel oxidation and its rapid effect in biodiesel its storage life is inferior to petrodiesel, there is a low-temperature operability, a smaller energy content per volume versus petrodiesel.3
Biodiesel has become a realistic alternative for the increasingly fast depleting fossil fuel that we all rely on. The various vegetable oils and possible vegetable oil feedstock is presently under exploited. The characteristic of biodiesel to be miscible with petroleum-based diesel fuel at any proportion will play a large part in taking small steps to creating a more biodiesel influenced society. Although a complete switch to the more environmentally “friendly” biodiesel seems to be the sure answer, there are still various technological kinks to be worked out on the fuels behalf. A consumer issue regarding the capital means to stabilize the oxidation of biodiesel will definitely cause a step back from the alternative source. There must be a significant amount of caution and care taken by consumers before the transfer to fuels containing large percentages of biodiesel. There must be care when cleaning storage tanks and monitoring the tank’s storage through the environment and condition changes like temperature, moisture content, sunlight exposure, and the atmosphere that the fuel is kept in.4 Lastly the additives and genetically modified crops for biodiesel feedstock require vast amounts of experimenting, regulatory evaluations, and approval from organizations such as the EPA before being commercially distributed. However, the numerous environmental benefits and applications of biodiesel fuels will carry forward to assure that an abundant market remains for the very attractive alternative to conventional petroleum – based diesel fuel.
Procedure
My Procedure was aimed to create biodiesel fuel, using one of the most common and abundant feedstocks, vegetable oil. The purpose for the experiment is to remove the glycerin byproduct from the vegetable oil, and continue with mostly biodiesel fuel and the remaining catalyst, sodium hydroxide.You want to first make sure that the environment around you is room temperature, or the reaction will not properly take place. First I got a decently large beaker (preferably 400+, so you have enough space for stirring, etc...). Next I took 40 ml. of methyl alcohol/methanol and poured it into the beaker. After pouring the methanol, I broke up .7 grams of Sodium hydroxide, because its reaction with methanol is particularly slow. Then I slowly placed the sodium hydroxide into the methanol, and stirred it until the sodium hydroxide fully disintegrated. The reaction between methanol and the dissolved sodium hydroxide yields sodium methoxide. Lastly I added approximately 200 ml. of vegetable oil to the sodium methoxide. You will then witness separation, which is the seperation of glycerin (bottom layer) and the biodiesel fuel (top layer). You must allow few hours, to insure the separation has fully occured. When you identify that the separation has taken place, pour the biodiesel into another beaker, and the glycerin should mostly stick to the bottom of the beaker.
Results
The experiment proved to be fairly successful, due to my ability to seperate the glycerin from the valuable biodiesel fuel. I actually allowed a few days for the separation process to occur, which may have attributed to the great amount of glycerin formation on the bottom of the beaker.Conclusions
Biodiesel fuel has slowly emerged into the national (U.S) and global picture in terms of fuel sources. The importance of a such a fuel source, will prove highly essential in the future, and the ability to produce something to this magnitude instantly sparked my interest. Although the experiment proved to be fairly successful, I believe there were some slight issues that I would like to address. When I separated the biodiesel from the glycerin, and examined the beaker with the biodiesel I noticed that many minuscule particles of glycerin subsisted within the mixture. The difference between this experiment, and the transesterification done by scientists largely lies in the ability to filter and purify the biodiesel fuel, in order to remove any unwanted substances. Due to the viscosity of the liquid, it would be difficult to use basic filtration equipment to remove the tiny glycerin particles to produce a higher percentage of purity in the fuel. I would also like to address the time that I allowed for the separation process. I yielded a very desirable amount of glycerin, and I wonder if the extended time allowed for seperation caused for the results that I received. If I only allowed for the time allotted initially, would I have yielded the same amounts?References
1.) National Biodiesel Board. "Biodiesel." Biodisel: The official site of the
NAtional Biodiesel Board . the NAtional Biodiesel Board , 2010. Web. 2 May
2010. <http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/>.
2.) North Dakota State University, Vern Hofman. "Biodiesel Fuel." Ag.Ndsu.edu. NDSU,
Feb. 2003. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ageng/machine/
ae1240w.htm>.
3.) Moser, Bryan R. "Biodiesel production, properties, and feedstocks." Rev. of
In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Plant, by Bryan R. Moser.
Springerlink. Springer, 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 2 May 2010. <http:/
www.springerlink.com/content/t8jv6m7264183nu7/fulltext.pdf>.
4.) Duffield, James, et al. "U.S. Biodiesel Development: New Markets for
Conventional and Genetically Modified Agricultural Fats and Oils."
Economic Research Service. USDA, 1 Sept. 1998. Web. 2 May 2010.
<http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer770/aer770.pdf>.
5.) Khemani, Haresh. "History of Biodiesel Fuel." Bright Hub. Bright Hub Inc., 9
Sept. 2008. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/
mechanical/articles/6728.aspx>.
6.) Kmhyr. "Biodiesel Fuel." CPast//. CPAST, 1 Jan. 2003. Web. 3 May 2010.
<http://www.cpast.org/Articles/fetch.adp?topicnum=61>.